Cycling the Bay Area & Stories from the Garden

Next steps… cuttings and graftings… oh my!!

So walking to work this morning, I noticed that there are two very mature, beautiful, and apparently fruiting avocado trees.

This got me thinking, I have a third seed which is sprouting over a jar of water which I had no clear direction for, I think I now have a direction. Obtaining a cutting from one of my father’s avocado trees, and grafting that into the seedling’s stalk when it gets big enough.

One of the “party lines” of the naysayers to the possibility that a store bought avocado producing a fruiting tree, is that the only way to get a Haas Avocado to grow, is via the grafting method. Well, I guess I will have to have a “control” to validate my experiment. This is pseudo-science dontchaknow?

More on that later…

The "little seed" in his big brothers shadow

Now that “the little seed that could” has reached the prescribed height of 12 inches, it is time to give him his first decent pruning. I don’t know why; however, I am having a hard time coming to terms with cutting him in half. It must be the nurturing parental instinct which resides in humans.

Alas, it must happen, or I cannot really continue with the project, right? I must look at the pruning with a cold scientific eye. So, this (sadly, not very good picture) will be the first, and last, glimpse of its little first leaves. It almost feels like I am watching my child take his first steps, then telling him he cannot walk anymore? Weird the way the mind works.

First little leaves, will be leaving soon...

Next steps, cutting “the little seed that could” in half, and researching proper grafting methods for the Haas Avocado.